The BBC has been forced into an embarrassing climbdown over climate change claims made in Sir David Attenborough's groundbreaking Africa series.

In the last episode of the series, entitled 'Future', Sir David discussed the challenges facing the region.

Speaking over footage of Mount Kilimanjaro, Sir David made the assertion that 'some parts of the continent have become 3.5C hotter in the past 20 years'.

However, figures from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that since 1850 global temperatures have risen by 0.76C, causing widespread concern among viewers.

The comment, first broadcast in the final episode of the Africa series last Wednesday, was removed from Sunday night’s repeat of the show.

A BBC spokesman said: 'There is widespread acknowledgement within the scientific community that the climate of Africa has been changing as stated in the programme.'We accept the evidence for 3.5 degrees increase is disputable and the commentary should have reflected that.

'Therefore that line has been removed from Sunday's repeat and the iPlayer version replaced.'